In 2010, Memorial University Libraries Special Collections began collecting examples of early electronic books or what my archivist colleague Bert Riggs has dubbed E-Incanabula. We have begun with the classics, written during Moulthrop’s “second wave” (starting with the introduction of personal computers and running through the popularization of the Internet, the second wave produced widely-distributed systems and the first examination of their uses and implications), and including Michael Joyce’s “Afternoon, a story,” Judy Malloy’s “Its Name Was Penelope,” Stuart Moulthrop’s “Victory Garden,” and Shelley Jackson’s “Patchwork Girl.” We are particularly interested in collecting the work of Canadian hypertext writers. Recently, Memorial University Libraries became the permanent home for Newfoundlander writer Don Austin’s hypertext prose poem ned after snowslides.

More information about the fledgling collection can be found at the Special Collections Literary Hypertext webpage.

The image above is taken from Don Austin’s ned after snowslides.

On Wednesday Oct. 20, 2010, Canadian poet and writer Peter Sanger delivered a public lecture to launch his most recent book, Through Darkling Air, a comprehensive literary biography of Canadian poet Richard Outram. The talk took place place in the Map Room of the Queen Elizabeth II library and was sponsored by Gaspereau Press and by Memorial’s Faculty of Arts and Queen Elizabeth II Library. Examples of Outram’s collaborations with artist Barbara Howard were on display from the library’s Gauntlet Press Collection.

In October 2010, staff of Special Collections worked with Dr. Jim Connor, John Clinch Professor of Medical Humanities and History of Medicine at Memorial University, to borrow a first edition copy of Edward Jenner’s An inquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae: a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the cow pox from the Rare Books collection of the Countway Library, Harvard Medical School. This copy of the book was inscribed by the Edward Jenner to John Clinch (1748-1819) of Trinity, Newfoundland as follows: “For the Rev. John Clinch from his affectionate friend the author”. John Clinch is credited as the first practitioner in North America to employ the Jennerian process of vaccinating against smallpox using cowpox. The work was the centerpiece of a book display at the Centre for Newfoundland Studies in support of the 36th Annual Conference of the Canadian Society for 18th-Century Studies. Memorial is grateful to Jack Eckert of the Countway library for making this loan possible.

In the Winter of 2010, the Queen Elizabeth II Library hosted an exhibition of artist’s books by Newfoundland-based artist Tara Bryan.

Tara Bryan’s walking bird press combines the best of fine letter press printing with the tradition of artists’ books. Since moving to Newfoundland in 1992 with her Vandercook press and six cabinets of type, Tara Bryan has produced more than one hundred letter-press publications, limited edition artists’ books, and unique “one-of-a-kind” works. She has a keen interest both in the Newfoundland landscape and in language, particularly as they are expressed through poetry. She has produced slightly surreal children’s books, and has drawn on the work of Lewis Carroll to produce one of her most ingenious works: “Down the Rabbit Hole” (2005). She has produced books in traditional codex form that range in size from miniatures to folio editions; she has constructed tunnel books, concertina or accordion-folded books, a jack-in-the-box book, hexa-flaexagons, broadsides, and books in specially designed boxes and envelopes. She incorporates into her designs a wide-variety of machine and hand-made papers (Thai Bamboo, Kiritsubo, St. Armand and Opus Watermedia, to name a few), creating works that are as appealing to the touch as to the eye. Walking bird press titles are illustrated and decorated with linocuts, rubber stamps, wood blocks, screen-printing, monotypes, laser printing, letter press printing and blind-stamping. Works may be bound in paper, cardboard or cloth, or concealed in envelopes or custom-made boxes. One spectacular example, To Stretch the Night (2001), is bound in walnut boards and has on its cover an original bas-relief bronze sculpture. In creating the unique output of walking bird press, Tara Bryan has collaborated with many artists, designers, printers, and writers from Newfoundland and from other parts of the world. Viewed chronologically, one notes the evolution of the forms she has chosen to use since she began making books in the 1980s. Viewed as a whole, the work dazzles with its range and complexity. Visit walking bird press to see images of Tara Bryan’s work.